JANISSARIES

Damnation, there had to be something he could do. And he wasn't too likely to talk Tylara out of jumping off that cliff into the sea, either. That was one girl who was likely to take her duties seriously.

"You have raided the Empire in the past?"

"Aye," Drumold said.

"Tell me more of the Empire. How are the legions armed?"

"With lances and swords. How else?"

"Lances and swords-they're horsemen, then?" Drumold seemed surprised. "Aye. Horses and centaurs. Mostly horses."

"Not foot-soldiers." Rick described a classical Roman legionary: square shield, pilum, andgladius hispanica.

"There are no such anywhere I know of," Drumold said. "Ken ye any in your western lands, priest?"

"No." Yanulf studied Rick's face. "What makes you think there might be?"

As near as he could figure it, the Shalnuksis had brought an expeditionary force from Earth in about 200 AD, about the time of Septimius Severus. That had to be when the ancestors of these new Romans arrived. Severus still employed classical foot-marching legio

"One of the greatest kingdoms in our history was armed that way," he said. "Uh-what religion is the Empire?"

"They call themselves Christian," Yanulf said. "But the Christians of the southern lands say they are not."

"Yatar does not prosper in Rome, then?"

"No."

"Have they ice caverns? How did Rome survive the Time?" Rick asked.

Yanulf spread his hands. "They do not welcome visitors. Or rather, their slavemasters welcome them all too well. It is said that there are caverns in Rome, but who attends them I do not know. It is also said that there is a great library with many records of previous Times, but again this is not of my own knowledge."

Gwen had been listening with a growing look of amazement. "Rick, what are you thinking of?" she demanded.

That earned her a sharp look from Drumold, who wasn't used to having women speak up that way.

"North is barren," Rick said. "West is the salt marsh and west of that Parsons and Sarakos. South of us is mostly ocean. If we're going to get anything to store up for the Time, we'll have to take it from

Rome."

"Man, are ye daft?" Drumold asked. "We raid the Empire, true, and done quickly, we often bring back cattle and horses. But we seldom escape punishment from the legions."

"He is not daft," Tylara protested. "He can-I have heard him speak of battles before. Of his victories over the Cubans-"

Yeah, I brag a lot when you're around, Rick thought. "What kind of punishment? What do the legions do?"

"Sometimes nothing," Drumold said. "But if we a

"And you fight them-"

"We try," Drumold said. "Aye, and we can win battles. But they come on, and we must take to the hills. They burn the villages and the crops and slaughter the flocks. Ofttimes we lose more than ever we gained. The Empire is a giant best left unawakened."

"But you have won battles against them," Rick said. "You must have, or they'd have simply occupied Tamaerthon and had done with it."

"Aye, we've beaten them in the passes," Drumold said. "In the passes, in the hills. But no one has ever beaten the legions on the plains. I think no one remembers the last time anyone tried."

So far it sounded a lot like the Scottish border country. Scotland remained free, but just barely. But there had been a time after Ba

An organized raid, with a wagon train to carry out grain and a properly organized force to delay the legions while the wagons got into the passes. It was possible.

"How many men could you put into the field against the Empire?" Rick asked. "For the biggest raid ever. Something to sing about for a hundred years."

Drumold frowned. "Not all the clans would respond to the summons," he said. "Perhaps three hundred lances. Two thousand archers. Another three thousand lads wi' swords. Perhaps a thousand more freedmen armed wi' whatever they can find. No more."

"And the nearest legion is four thousand strong," Rick mused.

"Four thousand legionaries," Drumold protested. "Wi' mail shirts, and good horses. Man, on level ground they'll ride us down."

Two thousand archers. Edward had four times that many at Crйcy, but Edward faced the entire chivalry of France, at least thirty thousand men. Proportionally, Tamaerthon could field more troops against the Empire than Edward ever had.

But there was a vast difference. Archers alone could never face cavalry. Edward's main line at Crйcy had been dismounted men-at-arms, fully armored knights. From what Rick had seen, Tamaerthon's three hundred lances would be at most five hundred men with no more than half of them armored. There was no way five hundred could form a shield for the archers. The legionary cavalry would sweep through. Once at close quarters, it would be all over for the archers.

Gunpowder? No. Even assuming Gwen was wrong about the possibility of the Shalnuksis helping Parsons, there just wasn't enough time. They'd need at least a thousand arquebuses and a ton of gunpowder. They'd need ring bayonets, too. It would take years. No. It wouldn't hurt to have some of the younger clan warriors start a systematic search for sulfur, just in case, but gunpowder wasn't the answer.

But there was another way. Heavy cavalry had been finished on Earth well before gunpowder put the final nails in their coffins. "Have any of your clansmen ever drilled with pikes?"

"Pikes?" Drumold asked.

"A long pole with a sharp metal point."

"Ye mean spears. We have spears."

"No, I mean pikes. How long are the spears you use? What formation do you fight in?"

That took a while. Eventually a henchman brought in a typical weapon. It was about six feet long, far too short to be any use against cavalry. The pikes used by the Swiss, and later by the landsknechts, had been eighteen feet long. As for formation, men who could afford no better weapon than a spear were peasants and didn't fight in any formation at all. They just went off to battle in droves and died in droves.

"How long can you keep the clansmen together without fighting?" Rick asked. "To drill." He had to explain the concept of training arid drill. By now even Tylara was wondering about his sanity.

"The fields and herds would go to waste," Drum-old protested. "And there's nae enough to feed such a horde in one place."

"There's food in the caverns."

"For the Time," Yanulf protested. "And not enough for that."

"Not enough for the Time," Rick agreed. "But enough to feed an army in training. What good will it do to keep what little we have? A properly trained army can beat the legions. We can march in-" he thought rapidly. There'd not be enough time for real training, and keeping the men too long without a battle would be disastrous for morale. "-in six ten-days."

"Harvest time," Drumold shouted. "Now I know ye're daft. You'd strip the land of the men at harvest time."

"You've said yourself it will be a poor harvest," Rick said. "Leave it for the women and children to gather."